Year

This year’s entries came from every Australian mainland call areas, as well as from Tasmania and New Zealand. The total number of logs submitted was 140. This was an increase from the 129 logs received last year. It was good to see several ZL stations take part this year, and three stations submitted their log. Well done to all who took part. I have included in the results all of the logs that I received and if any are missing, they are completely lost. I can only offer my apologies to anyone so affected. I am sorry if your log is missing, but it did not get it to me despite my most careful procedures and cross checking.

Based upon submitted logs, there were some 22,173 contacts, (a 6.3% increase over 2011) accumulating some 88,270 points claimed, (a 23% increase from 2011). This was pretty heavy contesting for an Australian field day contest, but unfortunately it resulted in just 140 logs being received. Unfortunately, the numbers of stations who went to the considerable trouble of going out and setting up as a portable station and then not bothering to submit a log as an entry, is still a disappointment. Some multiple operator stations got very big scores this and perhaps that simply reflects the great and varied planning and implementation efforts required to assemble and operate a multi operator station.

Activity was carried out on all bands permitted under the rules. There was not a noticeably increased activity on HF, and the frequencies in use seemed unaffected by the increasing sunspot cycle. This sunspot cycle is ascending off the bottom of the cycle but conditions did not appear to improve substantially this year. There was a slight 6m boost apparent in. In the higher UHF and Microwave bands there was a decrease in activity; maybe it follows a weather cycle, rather than the solar cycle? Maybe it only takes a couple of club stations to not operate to make the difference? The scoring in the UHF range was slightly up from last year. The VHF range the number of contacts is slightly higher than for 2011. The absence of many VK2 & VK4 club stations, because of the miserable weather in some parts certainly reduced activity, with many stations making such comments.

The other major change noticed this year was the decrease in Portable Station operation, and an increase in Home Station operation. Clearly as there were some portable station operators who did not bother to submit a log they are strongly encouraged to do so next year. However the change in the Home Station scoring resulted in increased activity. The participation across the various Call Areas was patchy. There was an increase in Portable stations in only VK2, while the other states all showed a decrease with VK7 activity also down on last year. All of the portable stations that went to the effort to send in a log will get a certificate. The WIA believes that those who made the effort to set up and operate a portable station should be acknowledged. In line with last year, the Foundation License logs who did not achieve a placing were instead awarded a Participation Certificate for encouragement.

A pleasing increase to nine Foundation Licensed operators submitted a log. (Four from VK2, none were fromVK3, two were from VK4, two from VK5 and one from VK6.) There were many more stations than this logged during the contest. All logs submitted by foundation operators were awarded a certificate. Logs from club station showed that quite a number also took part, as part of the club station effort. This year, the rules again stated that EXCEL is the preferred submission format. A sample linked EXCEL logging report was prepared and sent to those who requested this file. (Contact me at vk4ae@wia.org.au if you would like a copy of my linked spreadsheet in EXCEL for next year.) Other suitable file submission formats are WORD, TXT or the ADI output file from VKCL (VK Contest Log). PDF format is not acceptable as are JPG and TIFF. All logs submitted in an electronic form this year, were fully readable.

The new General rules for WIA contests were issued prior to this year’s contest requiring all logs to be submitted in Cabrillo format to fall into line with contests in other countries. There was insufficient time available to prepare a template and revise the contest scoring software. In the event there were no logs submitted in that format. Hence the time spent on creating suitable software by the author was completely wasted. It is viewed that, in Australia, there is negligible interest among most operators to go down this path to follow overseas contests by banning paper logs and only submitting logs in Cabrillo format. Hence it is likely that the rules of this contest will not change to follow this model.

There were still only 91% of logs submitted electronically this year, up from last year. This has been due largely to the excellent work by Mike Subocz (VK3AVV) and his worthy program VKCL (VK Contest Log). Those that submitted a log in the VKCL export format were as usual very easy to work with. Those that simply forwarded the text output of VKCL were also rather simpler to work with than any form of posted paper log or a log completed by hand. Paper logs may also be used. A small log from an individual operator is and will remain completely acceptable. Large paper logs require a very considerable manual work on the part the contest manager to input the data into the contest database and are no longer permitted. It is so much better to forward the computer files used to print the paper log as part of an e-mail as the data can then be easily extracted and used for checking purposes.

Next year, club stations will only be eligible to submit an entry, if their log is submitted electronically. (Paper logs from club stations are welcomed as a backup, if required, but the extensive amount of work required to manually check large paper logs is no longer acceptable, especially if the club station log has been prepared on a computer.)

A note for all HF Stations; - Any HF contacts are valid HF scoring contacts, whether they are from VK ZL or P2 stations or stations from overseas. Overseas stations cannot submit a log to the contest, but can exchange numbers with stations participating in the Field Day Contest. They are to be scored as a Portable station contact.

You can read the full report and view the contest results by clicking the following Link